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UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (22-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC) just made one significant step back to the cage.
The fighter, who's been on the sidelines for 16 months due to a knee injury, today announced he's been medically cleared to resume normal MMA activities.
That should open the door for his planned UFC 154 pay-per-view headliner with interim titleholder Carlos Condit (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC) this fall.
"I'm now medically cleared to compete in professional mixed martial arts events," St-Pierre today tweeted. "Rendez-vous le 17 novembre."

When it came time to debut the video for his high-octane single "Professional Griefers," Deadmau5 knew where to turn: the equally aggressive world of ultimate fighting.
On September 1st, Deadmau5 will unveil his clip during the UFC Jones vs. Henderson pay-per-view match. It features the recent Rolling Stone cover star locked in a futuristic gladiatorial bout with his guest vocalist, Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance. True to form, both combatants control oversized, CGI "mau5" robots.
The video won't be released online until August 29th, but you can check out some exclusive promo posters of the would-be UFC warriors here.

Following the cancellation of UFC 151 and some subsequent card-shuffling, the lineup for next month's UFC 152 event is again finalized.
The event, of course, now features a headliner between light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones (16-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) and Vitor Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC).
To make room for the title fight – one of two on the card – a lightweight bout of Evan Dunham (13-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) vs. T.J. Grant (18-5 MMA, 5-3 UFC) has been demoted to the event's preliminary card.
UFC 152 takes place Sept. 22 at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, and five fights are part of the PPV lineup. FX and Facebook carry the prelims.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A mixed martial arts fighter who police say beat his pregnant girlfriend so badly she later miscarried has turned himself in to authorities.
Willie "Slick" Parks, of Albuquerque, faces aggravated assault charges and was ordered held on $50,000 cash bail after he was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals.
According to a criminal complaint released Sunday, the 28-year-old's girlfriend told police that she blacked out during the beating and Parks didn't allow her to go to the doctor for days. The complaint says she suffered a broken nose, concussion and a miscarriage.

UFC on FOX 5's stacked card has added even more star power, with heavyweight power punchers Lavar "Big" Johnson and Brendan "The Hybrid" Schaub verbally agreeing to fight December 8 in Seattle, Washington.
Verbals are also in for two of the most exciting fighters in the welterweight division to meet as Matt "The Immortal" Brown takes on Mike "Quick" Swick at that event.
In addition, two lightweight bouts originally booked for the cancelled UFC 151 have been bumped to the Seattle date: Daron Cruickshank vs. Henry Martinez and Tim Means vs. Abel Trujillo.

PORTLAND, Ore. – Count Chael Sonnen among those surprised by Vitor Belfort's sudden light-heavyweight title shot.
Sonnen (28-12-1 MMA, 6-5 UFC) heard the news after practice this past Thursday and initially was puzzled that Belfort (21-9 MMA, 10-5 UFC) was moving up in weight to fight champ Jon Jones (16-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) at UFC 152.
But perhaps surprisingly, he's pulling for "The Phenom."
"Vitor's an excellent fighter," Sonnen told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) following Rumble at the Roseland 65, an event he promotes under the name Full Contact Fighting Federation. "It's world champion after world champion that he fights, and this isn't any different. It's a good chance for Vitor, and I hope he seizes the moment."
Wait, Sonnen praising Belfort?

Aug 27, 2012 - The cancellation of UFC 151 spawned a series of sub-plots, including the offer of Chael Sonnen to save the show by stepping in to fight Jon Jones in the main event, a gesture that had Sonnen come off as a hero. In the days that have passed since the announcement the show would be scrapped, Jones' side has lobbed allegations that Sonnen was in the know about Dan Henderson's injury, and was secretly training in preparation of replacing Henderson in the fight.
On a Monday interview on The MMA Hour, Dan Henderson denied those claims.
"Chael didn’t know anything about it," he said. "He had definitely not been training at all. My guys told me that Greg Jackson said in an interview that Chael was down training with me and getting ready for the fight and knew I was hurt. It was nothing like that at all.. He wasn’t even down here. I asked him if he wanted to come down and help me train a couple months ago, but he didn’t come down."

Lightweights Mac Danzig (21-9-1 MMA, 5-5 UFC) and Takanori Gomi (33-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC) are headed to China.
That's according to Danzig, who today tweeted that he's scheduled to fight Gomi at UFC on FUEL TV 6.
The event takes place at Venetian Macau Resort Hotel's Cotai Arena in Macau, a special administrative region of China. It's not yet known whether the bout is part of the event's main card on FUEL TV or prelims on Facebook.
"I finally have a fight!" Danzig wrote on his Twitter account.

In the fallout of UFC 151's cancellation, it isn't just fans or media who've engaged in speculation about what really happened or who is truly to blame.
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones' striking coach, Mike Winkeljohn, told Bloody Elbow Sunday he believes UFC middleweight turned light heavyweight Chael Sonnen could have been training all along to fill in for an injured Dan Henderson.

Being proactive paid off for Joe Lauzon last week. The UFC lightweight contender signed on to fight Gray Maynard and says he was the one pushing for the tough match up.
“I saw Gray say in an interview that he wanted to coach the next season of TUF against Nate Diaz,” Joe explains.
“He’s banking on Diaz beating [Ben] Henderson [when the two face off for Henderson’s title] and wants that title shot and, I guess, a third fight between him and Nate. So I contacted [UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva and said that I thought Gray and I could be a cool angle as coaches of TUF. They didn’t do that but later I got a call asking if I wanted to fight Gray on December 29th. Its on the main card of a huge card.”

HANFORD — Authorities say mixed martial arts fighter Chad Mendes has been charged with battery for his alleged involvement in a bar fight last month.
The Kings County District Attorney’s Office announced today that they would seek a battery charge against Mendes, which carries with it a possible $2,000 fine and up to six months in county jail.
Kings County Sheriff’s deputies say Mendes, a 27-year-old local native, sucker punched a man in the face at the Lacey Inn Bar on July 29. Leaving out the back door, he ran from law enforcement and managed to escape capture. But witnesses at the scene recognized the famous athlete.

Two days after the atomic bomb was dropped on MMA fans with UFC 151 going down the tubes, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones has taken to Twitter to address his role in the event being canceled. As you absolutely have to know by now, Jones' original opponent Dan Henderson pulled out due to injury, and Jones refused a short-notice title fight with Chael Sonnen, causing Dana White to go on a tirade towards Jones and Greg Jackson. Jones apologized and accepted full responsibility for the UFC canceling a card for the first time ever.

First it was an unfortunate situation, then a terrible one. Now it's just plain weird.
To recap: Dan Henderson gets hurt and can't fight Jon Jones at UFC 151. Jones won't accept a fight with Chael Sonnen as a replacement, which led UFC President Dana White to shift Jones into a fight with Lyoto Machida at UFC 152 and cancel UFC 151 altogether, an executive decision for which White blamed not only Jones but also his trainer, Greg Jackson. But then, hold on, Machida won't take that fight after all, so now it's middleweight Vitor Belfort stepping up a division to fight Jones in the title fight that fans have been begging for since never.
If you're not confused yet, you probably should be. I know I am. I'm confused about how Jones and Jackson came to be blamed for what was ultimately the UFC's decision. I'm confused about how Jones and Jackson couldn't see the upside of taking the fight in the first place. I'm confused about what must be going through Machida's mind to make him think he's in a position to pick and choose. I'm really confused as to how Belfort got the offer at all, unless the UFC was calling every fighter in the company directory and doing it alphabetically by last name.
Mostly I'm confused about what it all means, not just for Jones and Jackson and Sonnen and Machida, but also for the UFC and MMA in general. How did we get to a point where a 41-year-old man's injured knee could set off a chain of events that would derail an entire event, leaving both fans and undercard fighters with nothing to do and nowhere to go on what was supposed to be a big Saturday night? Who's to blame for all this? And, in the rush to point fingers, how do we know we're pointing them in the right direction?

Sonnen has continued his campaign against Jones by taking to Facebook and posting the following:
I am no longer permitted to speak ill of the former champion Jon Jones as we have come to an agreement. I will stop tearing him down verbally and in exchange he has relinquished his belt to me. I would like to
read a prepared statement from the former Champion.
Mr Sonnen,
In every mans life a choice must eventually be made. Run or fight. I said I wouldn't duck any man as champion. But you are no ordinary man. You've spoken nothing but truth in your attempt to gain a title fight
with me. My last act of cowardness is to hand over what you would have beaten out of me 8 days from today. The UFC LHW Title. Now I must refocus my life. Good luck Champ.
Signed,
Jon Bones Jones
P.S. I just ordered your best selling book, A Voice of Reason from amazon, I've been told by Greg Jackson that it will help me get through this tough time. Thanks

Less than 24 hours after Belfort accepted a fight with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones for the UFC 152 event in Toronto, Belcher is also off the card, revealing on Friday that he is injured.
“Everyone’s asking if I am mad at @ufc @JonnyBones @vitorbelfort answer is no,” tweeted Belcher. “this is a blessing in disguise. I have a spinal fracture.”
Although that sounds severe, Belcher doesn’t intend to be on the sidelines for long, indicating that he plans to return in November. He’s even got a target in mind for after he heals up.
Phil Davis and Wagner Prado’s fight at UFC on Fox 4, earlier in August, was ruled a dissatisfying “no contest” when Prado could not continue due to an accidental eye poke from Davis.
Davis and Prado will meet again, this time on the UFC 153 main card on pay-per-view, hoping to declare a winner.

Another change from the UFC 151 fallout is in the books, and UFC on FX 5 has yet another fight.
A lightweight fight between Dennis Hallman (51-14-2 MMA, 4-5 UFC) and Thiago Tavares (17-4-1 MMA, 7-4-1 UFC) will shift to October in Minneapolis following the Thursday cancellation of next week's UFC 151 show in Las Vegas.
UFC officials on Friday announced the change, just a day after moving three other fights from Las Vegas to Minnesota.

A day after Sean Pierson's opponent dropped out for his hometown fight at UFC 152, he has a new foe.
After Dan Miller (14-6 MMA, 6-5 UFC) was forced off next month's UFC 152 card, Pierson (12-6 MMA, 2-2 UFC) now will face Lance Benoist (6-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC).
UFC officials on Friday announced the new booking for the show, which takes place Sept. 22 at Air Canada Center in Toronto.

The UFC is slowly but surely emptying out the rest of their canceled UFC 151 PPV. Today officials confirmed that the following fights would be moved to October and November: Dennis Hallman vs. Thiago Tavares, John Lineker vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani, and Takeya Mizugaki vs. Jeff Hougland.